“We are not exporting democracy” – Russia’s human rights envoy

Published time: 3 Aug, 2011 09:06 Edited time: 3 Aug, 2011 13:07

Democracy cannot be exported to a particular country, believes Russia’s first envoy for human rights Konstantin Dolgov, whose job is to watch after implementation of human rights, democracy and rule of law around the globe.

“Obviously, democratic development should come first and foremost from within the countries,” argued the recently-appointed envoy. “We consistently proceed from the assumption that there should be no such thing, as some countries are expected to live up to more democratic standards than others.”

In this light the reluctance of the current US administration properly to investigate the multiple reported cases of systematic torture of the captured and imprisoned terrorist militants and suspects at Guantanamo Bay prison camp and other similar facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan arouses deepest regret, particularly because it gives guarantees of impunity to those executioners torturing people to obtain necessary information. At the same time Konstantin Dolgov noted that “Obama’s administration has pledged numerous times to deal with those issues” and since the administration and the president are in their position, “there’s still time” to stand by their promises.

Speaking about the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Russia’s envoy expressed hope that the last trials it conducts, with former Serbian leaders Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic in the dock, will be fair and objective, as distinct from many other trials it did in the past, and will be basing its decisions solely on proven facts.

Being asked about Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was kidnapped and put on trial in the US, Konstantin Dolgov said Russia will not tolerate violations of legitimate rights, including issues of improper extradition of the Russian citizens abroad and promised that Russia’s response will be most effective, adequate, proportionate and most definitely based on international law.

“We are not violating international law to fight violations of international law,” Dolgov said. “Illegal steps are not the method, as a matter of principle, used by the Russian Federation.”